


Falling again

by vendettadays



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Falling In Love, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28983564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vendettadays/pseuds/vendettadays
Summary: Neji was there when she had fallen from the sky.But who was this woman who spoke his name with such intimacy and familiarity? And just who was he to her?
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji/Tenten
Comments: 10
Kudos: 43
Collections: Past Imperfect Future Unknown 2020





	Falling again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tavina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tavina/gifts).



Neji arrived at a grassy clearing on the outskirts of the village. It was a stretch of field dotted with boulders, patches of dirt, and training dummies. The training ground wasn’t exactly as it used to be. Nothing was exactly as it had been since the war. But it was in the same location and bordered the Konoha forest. It was still where he had spent most of his genin and chūnin days, perfecting jutsu after jutsu, training by himself or occasionally, with Lee.

He had woken this morning, rested but restless. Meditation hadn’t worked. Practising his katas in the dojo hadn’t expended the nervous energy that vibrated in his muscles. He had left the Hyūga estate, each step he took tense and jittery, and in the hope that a brisk walk would help. It hadn’t. The tension in his chest remained. It stayed like a splinter beneath skin, even as he stepped into the training grounds.

He strolled in a circle around the grounds, looking for something _._ Except, everything looked normal. Not a thing out of the ordinary. Neji sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. The veins at his temples bulged suddenly, Byakugan activating almost without conscious thought as he detected an unknown chakra signature.

_Right above him._

Neji’s feet shifted and he leapt out of the way. The impact shook the field like an earthquake and what had been been flat ground cratered instantly. He approached the edge of the crater cautiously, hands held out defensively in front of him. He peered over the edge, through the haze of dust. A deep furrow appeared on his brow at seeing a large scroll strapped to the back of a body — a woman — lying at the bottom of the crater.

The tightness in his chest only got worse at the sight of the woman’s brown hair. Déjà vu swept through him and in an impulsive act, he abandoned all his years of training and jumped into the crater. He landed next to the fallen woman, noticing for the first time a glowing sword in her hand and the blood that rushed from a wound in her side.

~~~

Neji was sitting on the wooden porch outside his room, overlooking the small enclosed garden. It was a little oasis of privacy for him at the heart of the Hyūga estate, away from the prying eyes of his kin and quiet enough that he could hear his thoughts.

His eyes were closed, legs tucked beneath him, hands resting palms down on his knees as he tried to empty his mind. Darkness surrounded him and his thoughts trickled away, carried like fallen leaves on the surface of a running stream. He focused on the chirping of baby sparrows in the old gingko tree on the left of the garden, the whispering of the tree’s delicate fan-shaped leaves in the breeze, and the rhythmic clop of the bamboo _sōzu_ as it emptied water back into the pond.

An image of the woman from the crater pushed itself to his mind, unwilling to be forgotten and distracting Neji once again. He sighed and opened his eyes, squinting up at the blue sky. No matter how he tried to lose himself in meditation, all he saw was the ashen look on the woman’s face. Her chest had rose and dipped imperceptibly as he had raced across the village in a chakra-fuelled run with the woman in his arms. He still felt her blood on his hands, warm and wet, and soaked into the front of his clothes. The tang of the iron made his stomach roil and had thrown him, momentarily, back into the middle of the war.

The quiet shuffle of the screen door opening broke Neji from his thoughts. He turned to see Hinata closing the screen, a grim line to her mouth as she sat down next to him. In her hands was the sword, a short _wakizashi_ without its longer companion, wrapped in a white cloth. She placed it down on the wooden deck, next to the forehead protector by his right knee.

‘Is she going to be alright?’ asked Neji.

‘If the fall hadn’t killed her, the sword wound should have, but she survived. Whoever she is, her will to live is strong. I’ve stitched the wound and bandaged her, but she will have to be careful when she wakes up.’ Hinata nodded and handed him a glass bottle of medicine. ‘For the pain and infection when she wakes up.’

‘Thank you, Hinata.’ Neji smiled gratefully to his cousin who smiled in return.

They hadn’t always been this friendly. When he was younger, hatred for their family and resentment for Hinata as the heiress of the clan had filled him like darkness in a cave. It had taken a long time for him to forgive his uncle and the clan. It hadn’t been easy, but with every passing day after the chūnin exams, it had become easier to let go of the anger that fuelled him. In ten years, he had failed his first chūnin exam and passed his second, rose to the rank of jōnin within a year and had survived the Fourth Shinobi War, but throughout all the years, the hardest part was learning to forgive himself.

‘Neji? Are you alright?’

He cleared his throat and forced himself to look at Hinata. The oddness of today had him sinking into his memories more than usual. ’I’m fine.’

A part of the blade, not covered by the cloth, gleamed in the sunlight. He reached for it. Hinata’s hand shot out and grabbed his wrist just as his fingers were about to touch the braided hilt.

‘Don’t touch it!’ Panic coloured Hinata’s voice. She deliberately moved Neji’s arm away and carefully flipped the cloth to cover the sword completely. Her long, navy hair shone in the light as she shook her head quickly from left to right. ‘It’s imbued with a chakra I’ve never felt before. I don’t know how to describe it, but it just doesn’t feel right.’

He nodded in agreement. He had sensed that something wasn’t right when he had picked the sword up, holding the blade covered by the fabric of his sleeve.

‘It’s not of this world. The feeling is ominous, but not malevolent.’ It was the closest explanation he could find.

‘Like the woman’s chakra.’ Hinata frowned. ‘It’s nothing I’ve encountered before and like you say, not of this world.’

Neji’s hand went to his chin as he recalled the woman’s chakra when he had seen it with his Byakugan. Despite the raging wound, her chakra was a rushing lively current around her body. Bright and strong as the will of fire, but there was _something_ inexplicably different about it that he couldn’t explain. It niggled at the back of his head like the slipping tendrils of a dream as sleep faded and consciousness reasserted itself in the morning.

‘Who is she, Neji?’

‘I honestly don’t know.’

‘But she has a Konoha forehead protector,’ said Hinata, her frown grew sterner, more troubled. ‘She is one of ours.’

The forehead protector in front of him gleamed in the sunlight. Its metal was polished and well-cared for. The fabric was black, instead of the standard blue, and was no different from the one he wore himself. It even had a shinobi ID etched on the back of the metal. Every single forehead protector that was ever issued to a Konoha shinobi bore their ID on the back of the metal plate. He had pried the metal from the fabric to check and there it was, the unique six-digit identity number.

‘I ran her ninja ID on the database, but there’s no 012573. The system skipped this number when they generated the IDs. This woman doesn’t exist.’

That was completely untrue. The woman did exist. She was lying unconscious in his room, impossibly alive after having fallen out of the sky. That wasn’t even the oddest part. His hands on his knees tightened into fists. How could he explain the breathlessness in his lungs at seeing her face, dirty and sweat-streaked, for the first time? How the world had stopped spinning when he hefted her into his arms? How his heart had lodged itself firmly in his throat with every step he took back to the estate?

He had no answers for the dread that filled him at the thought that she would die in his arms.

‘Let me know when she wakes.’ Hinata got to her feet, smoothed down her lilac-coloured _hakama_ , and gave his shoulder a quick squeeze before leaving him to his thoughts.

Neji turned back to the garden and tried to collect himself. He breathed deeply to clear his head, picked up the sword and stood to go into the room to check on the woman.

~~~

Three days had passed and the woman still had not woken yet. The wound was healing well, Hinata had said when she came to change the dressing each morning and night. It was shallow cut on her waist from a slash of a sword and would have been easy to heal, but Hinata hadn’t dared to use any healing jutsu. Not when the woman’s chakra was so much different to any they had seen before. It meant a slower recovery and stitches to be removed later. It meant waiting for the woman to regain conscious and leaving it to her will.

Neji closed the screen door of his room quietly, lifting the screen slightly to avoid the bump in the track. Not that a faulty screen was going to rouse the unconscious woman. He went to the sliding screens to the porch and opened it a crack. A sliver of sunshine and some fresh air into the darkened room was better than none.

He settled down next to the woman. It took less than three days for the rumours to start flying around the estate. Everywhere he went he heard whispers hidden behind hands, felt the scrutiny of stares following his back, and the sudden silence when he passed clan members in the corridors.

Who was she?

Why had he brought her to the estate instead of the hospital?

Does the Hokage know?

The only question he could answer with any certainty was that the Hokage _did_ know. Reporting to the Hokage was the second thing he had done. The first was making sure the woman was stable enough to be left alone.

The slow rise and fall of the blanket covering the woman brought unexpected comfort to him, despite her eyes remaining stubbornly closed. He sighed and looked up at the ceiling of his room. The tension hadn’t left. The fact that she hadn’t woken only made it worse. He wondered how long he was going to be held by the edge of his nerves?

A soft groan broke through his thoughts. The woman’s eyes opened slowly. Neji's heart seized at the warm brown eyes that looked back him, unfocused and dazed as they were. A crinkle appeared between her eyebrows as did lines on her forehead. She reached up and Neji’s breath hitched when her fingers slid along his jaw, her palm cupping his face in a gesture so tender that his heart stuttered in his chest.

‘Neji?’

It was as if the air in the room had thinned. His head span in a dizzying tilt. His name had never sounded so familiar or so intimate as it did when spoken by this stranger. Spoken like a secret by this woman who he had never met before.

His hand closed around the woman’s wrist. He shook his head and gently pulled her hand away from his face. The thumping beat of her pulse beneath his fingertips, the softness of her skin on the inside of her wrist, and the sharpening clarity in her eyes, they were all very much real, even if everything felt like it belonged in a dream.

‘Who are you?’

~~~

Her name was Tenten.

The name held no significance to him. He had never heard it before and yet, her name felt more weighted than it should have. The way she had looked at him, like her world had been destroyed, was something he couldn’t get out of his head.

Neji stood outside his room as he waited for Hinata to finish examining Tenten. He nodded politely at a passing clan member, whose pace slowed as they passed only to quicken into a scurry at Neji’s disapproving glare. He crossed his arms over his chest, irritation burning close to the surface as he continued to glare.

‘I heard your guest is awake?’

The deep rumble of Hiashi’s voice made Neji to turn. He uncrossed his arms and bowed respectfully to his uncle. ‘That is correct. I sent word as soon as she woke as promised.’

‘And I have sent word to the Hokage who is due to return from Suna in five days.’

‘As it is to be expected.’ Neji hesitated, but forced himself to ask, if only to sooth the agitation it brought, ‘and what has the elders said on this?’

‘For someone to appear out of thin air with a genuine Konoha forehead protector, unusual chakra, and a mysterious sword? It is all a cause for concern, but she is injured and for now at least, she does not pose an immediate threat. We can wait for the Hokage to return.’ Hiashi glanced at screen doors before turning back to Neji, eyes softening and the furrows on his forehead became less pronounced. ‘The elders are adamant that the woman—’

‘Tenten. She’s called Tenten.’ Neji clenched his jaw tightly, shocked at himself for interrupting his uncle as he was talking.

Hiashi blinked, surprised too at his uncharacteristic display of disrespect, but a small smile appeared on his lip and he continued as if he had not been interrupted. ‘The elders are adamant that Tenten is moved out of the estate, _but_ I have convinced them that as she is recovering from a serious wound that she should stay, at least until the Hokage has returned.’

Neji closed his mouth and nodded. ‘Thank you, Uncle.’

‘I cannot say I understand why you brought her here. However, I know you do not act without a reason,’ said Hiashi. He gave a squeeze to Neji’s shoulder and left just as Hinata came out of his room.

‘Is she okay?’ asked Neji.

‘She’s fine. Give it a few more days and she should be well enough to move.’ Hinata’s usually placid expression became troubled; her fingers fidgeted together nervously and in a way he hadn’t seen in years. ‘She asked for you.’

Neji went to move past, but was stopped by Hinata’s hand on his arm only for her to shake her head and let him go.

The moment he walked in, Tenten’s head turned and she struggled up into a sitting position. He closed the gap between them in two long strides and was met without any resistance, when he guided her back down onto futon. ‘Stay still, you’re going to rip your stitches if you keep moving like that.’

The way Tenten rolled her eyes and gave a sigh made him pause, it was almost affectionate as if this was not the first time she had been told something similar. He sat down on the tatami, uncertainty filled him as he took in Tenten’s tired face, the pallor to her skin and dark circles beneath her eyes told him that she still needed rest.

‘Hinata said you found me.’

‘She was correct.’

‘So this isn’t a dream?’ asked Tenten in a whisper.

He frowned ‘What makes you think this isn’t real?’

Tenten’s mouth opened and closed wordlessly, anguish clouded her eyes. It disappeared as quickly as it appeared, and he couldn’t be sure he had seen it. ‘If this isn’t a dream, then how am I here?’

‘You fell from the sky.’

‘I did?’ A crinkle creased the space between Tenten's brow.

‘You appeared and fell, holding that sword,’ he gestured to the covered _wakizashi_ on the chest of drawers at the far end of his room, ‘and with a gash in your side. That’s how.’

‘That’s not possible,’ Tenten said. The crinkle became an intense dip. ‘Can you bring the sword to me.’

Neji brought the sword to her without protest. There was a note of unease in her tone. He carefully held the hilt with the cloth. A gasp left Tenten, her gaze tracking the blade from the guard to the tip. She jerked upwards, but before she could hurt herself, Neji placed his hand on her shoulder and gently stopped her movement with the tips of his fingers.

‘You don’t listen to instructions,’ said Neji with exasperation. This time he didn’t get a fond look as he did before.

‘It shouldn’t have worked.’

‘Explain.’ The disbelief on Tenten’s face told Neji that it was important that he knew exactly what this sword was. It didn’t matter what kind of hold Tenten had over him, if the village was in danger, he needed to know.

‘I forged the sword and sealed a space-time ninjutsu into the blade. It’s never worked before. It isn’t like there is a space-time justu user I could have asked about where I went wrong.’

Obito Uchiha came to mind. He was the only one Neji knew who was alive and could use that class of ninjutsu. Why would Tenten not know this? Was it really possible to travel through time as she was suggesting?

‘I forgot about it until we were ambushed and it was the only weapon left in my arsenal...’ Tenten trailed off, another intense frown appeared. ‘I don’t even know if the team made it back to Konoha.’

Neji placed the sword onto the floor. He massaged his temples. His head already started to hurt. Every new piece of information only added to his confusion. ‘You talk like the village is your home and you even have a Konoha forehead protector, and yet I have never seen you before. Just who are you?’

As bedridden as she was, Tenten bristled, eyes steeled into a glare and without any care that she was insulting him. They glared at each other, stuck in a stalemate with neither of them willing to be the first to look away. Her blatant disregard for propriety, especially towards him, and unabashed boldness stirred admiration in him. No one outside the clan dared to challenge him like this. The last person was Naruto all those years ago and that was with an uppercut to his chin, rather than a disapproving look.

‘Fine,’ Neji conceded. He didn’t look away, but renewed his scrutiny on Tenten. ‘Let’s say I believe you and you did travel through time, when did you travel from? The past or future?’

Tenten worried her bottom lip with her teeth. ‘Neither.’

Neji pressed his lips in a firm line and withheld another question that threatened to escape, exercising patience as he waited for Tenten to continue.

‘How many years has it been since the Fourth Shinobi War? If there even was one here.’ Tenten huffed a short laugh and winced as she did so.

‘Four years.’

‘It’s been two years in the timeline I’m from.’

Timeline. That suggested there was more than just the world he knew. The sword suddenly felt more dangerous than he initially thought. He needed to get a message to Obito urgently. A messenger hawk was better than waiting for the Hokage to return.

‘We need to inform the—’ He broke off at seeing Tenten’s closed eyes, mouth slightly parted in sleep. Without thinking, he pulled the blanket up to her chin, made sure the glass of water Hinata had brought was within easy reach and left her to rest.

There was so much he needed to get his head around. Being in the same room as Tenten was not going to help.

~~~

As the days passed, Tenten grew stronger and the colour in her cheeks returned. Her wound had healed enough that moving didn’t threaten to rip the stitches. She was also well enough to bathe, much to her relief and to Neji’s embarrassment. Heat had flooded his face when Tenten had brought up the matter of bathing, and he had immediately stormed from his room in search of Hinata.

That was the thing with Tenten. She spoke to him with such familiarity that was completely devoid of politeness, as if they knew each other. It was the interaction of someone who didn’t think they were strangers. Her lack of embarrassment at loudly declaring a need for a bath was an example of that.

‘You know me,’ said Neji, breaking the comfortable silence they had fallen into. It was a statement without any inflection and said so bluntly that he wished he had softened his tone.

They were out on the porch. Tenten reclined on a floor chair and Neji sat on the polished deck as they looked out into the garden. He had suggested they sit outside, better for Tenten to get some fresh air in the warmth and sunshine.

Tenten turned to him and Neji didn’t miss the subtle flex of her jaw. She exhaled softly, a sigh filled with resignation and something else he couldn’t identify. Her eyes seemed to shine a little brighter in the light. She blinked and turned back to the garden. ‘Yes, I did once upon a time.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘It’s been a couple of years since I last saw you.’ Tenten shrugged. There was an undercurrent of pain in her eyes.

‘I see.’

Disappointment settled over him even as Tenten’s explanation seemed to make sense. He had a habit of pushing people away, preferring solitude to the company of others. He got better over the years since his first chūnin exam. Lee and Guy had helped. Hinata too. He didn’t know how different his other self was in Tenten’s timeline, but if that Neji was anything like him, it would not surprise him if his other self had pushed her away.

‘You said the Hokage is due back today?’ asked Tenten, changing the thread of their conversation.

‘Yes, the Hokage and his party are expected back in a hour.’ He was unexpectedly nervous about the meeting. It would determine what would happen to Tenten.

A three tap knock sounded and both he and Tenten looked over their shoulders to the door.

‘That must be them…’ Tenten slowly got to her feet, pointedly ignoring Neji’s protest for her to sit back down before she hurt herself.

Neji rushed to open the door to his room and bowed respectfully. ‘Lord Hokage.’

He stepped aside to let Kakashi in, followed closely by Obito. His uncle entered last. Kakashi and Obito were still in their travelling cloaks and gear like they had come straight to the estate, the moment they had returned to the village.

‘Obito Uchiha?’ asked Tenten abruptly. ‘You survived the war?’

Four identically confused looks were directed at Tenten. Out of all of them, Kakashi was the first to recover. ‘Yes, Obito survived. He was a crucial piece in winning the war. And you are?’

Neji frowned, but held his tongue. There was no doubt that Kakashi knew exactly who she was. A mutinous look appeared on Tenten’s face as she kept resolutely silent. It was a play at power that Kakashi liked to use, and apparently, she knew too.

If it had been a test, then Tenten passed when the corners of Kakashi’s eyes crinkled with a hint of a smile. ‘You must be Tenten.’

She nodded, but didn’t say anything.

‘I’ve heard some miraculous things about you,’ started Kakashi. He walked over to her. ‘That you claim to have travelled through time or crossed timelines as it were, and with the use of a sword?’

‘I haven’t claimed anything. It is the truth,’ said Tenten adamantly.

Neji picked up the cloth-covered sword from where it lay on the chest of drawers, and held it out to Kakashi who took it from him. Kakashi’s eyes flicked over the sword lazily, almost bored before he handed it to Obito.

Obito turned the short sword in his gloved hands. The tomoes of his Sharingan spun slowly as he examined the blade, looking for something that even Neji’s Byakugan could not find.

‘The blacksmith is a talented shinobi to have accomplished this,’ commented Obito. ‘The steel has been folded with the seals of a space-time jutsu forged into metal. The jutsu is similar to the technique created by the Second Hokage.’ He brought the blade closer to his eyes before turning to Tenten with wide eyes. ‘Except it does not look like it requires a mark on a target to use. Who forged this?’

‘I did,’ replied Tenten, voice calm and clear. Obito shared a look with Kakashi, one that Neji couldn’t decipher.

‘Who are you exactly?’ asked Kakashi.

‘I am from the House of Tiān. My family may or may not exist in this timeline, but in my own, we are master weaponsmiths originally from the Middle Kingdom.’

It was Hiashi who replied first, taking everyone by surprise. He bowed his head slightly to Tenten. ‘I am sorry to inform you, but the last surviving member of the House of Tiān died twenty-one years ago.’

‘Twenty-one years ago?’ she repeated, her face falling as understanding dawned.

Hiashi nodded gravely. ‘It was during the attack on the village by the Nine-Tailed Fox.’

Uncomfortable silence followed as the weight of Hiashi’s words sank in. When it seemed no one was going to speak, Neji stepped forward, shoulders pulled back as he faced Kakashi.

‘Lord Hokage, I have only known Tenten for a few days, but I believe what she has told us to be true and that she has somehow travelled across time,’ Neji paused and took a breath. ‘I do not believe she poses a threat to us.’

Kakashi stared intently at Neji. The seconds passed and all Neji could do was hold firm as the Hokage appraised him with critical eyes. He wasn’t going to back down. Kakashi turned back to Tenten, seemingly satisfied with whatever he had seen in Neji.

‘As Neji has vouched for you, I will respect his judgement and not treat you as a hostile. When have fully healed, I expect you to submit to an interview with our Interrogation Unit, do you understand?’

‘I understand,’ replied Tenten.

‘Good.’ Kakashi looked to Obito and added, ‘And the sword?’

‘I will need to examine it closer, but I also believe that Tenten had travelled to this time with the sword and jutsu.’

Kakashi nodded and clapped his hand together lightly. ‘Since that’s settled, I guess we will be looking at finding ways for you to return to your own time then.’

‘Thank you,’ said Tenten. The tension in her shoulders relaxed and she inclined her head.

She swayed as she straightened up, sweat beaded on her forehead, but she stayed standing, hands pressed to her sides and head held high. Neji resisted the urge to stand closer so he could support her weight. He imagined that Tenten would not take his help well.

‘I believe this is as much as we can discuss for now.’ Kakashi turned to Hiashi. ‘I will leave the rest to you.’

A scowl threatened to appear on Neji’s lips, but he forced it down and smoothed any traces of the expression from his face. The ‘rest’ were clan politics. It wasn’t his uncle that was the problem. Hiashi had learned to be more open as the years went by. The Fourth Shinobi War had hastened many of the changes in the Hyūga clan, but there were still the elders to appease. Convincing them to allow Tenten, an outsider, to stay in the estate was going to be difficult, even with his uncle on his side.

‘Let me walk you both out,’ said Hiashi. He gestured for Kakashi to walk first before adding to Neji, ‘we’ll speak later.’

Neji and Tenten bowed as the three men left the room. As soon as the door slid closed, Tenten stumbled and Neji caught her before she fell. Her hand was pressed to her wound. When she took her hand away, it came away clean and bloodless to Neji’s relief.

He slowly guided her to the futon, frown firmly on his brow and a sigh on his lips. ‘You should have stayed sitting.’

A pained grimace crossed Tenten’s face as she lay down on her back with Neji’s help. ‘When the Hokage, Obito Uchiha and the Hyūga clan leader pays a visit, you don’t sit if you can help it.’

He gave another tired sigh and rolled his eyes at her stubbornness. As much as he thought she should have sat for the meeting, he knew the power of first impressions and appearances, and Tenten had shown them all just how formidable she was.

~~~

After hours of interview with Ibiki Morino, the interrogation unit had declared Tenten a non-hostile and Neji breathed easier when she had returned to the estate with the news. With the Hokage’s approval, Tenten was allowed to move freely around the village, even if she kept herself to three places. The Hyūga estate, the training ground, and the Uchiha estate when she visited Obito.

They threw themselves into researching how to get Tenten back to her original timeline. Obito focused on identifying the seals she had forged into the sword. Tenten spent her days reading scrolls and books on space-time jutsus, and trying to recall what had happened before she’d been transported through time.

And Neji? Well, there wasn’t any practical assistance he could offer to either of them. But he found himself falling into a routine that revolved around Tenten from the moment he woke up, to the moment he slept. That was the oddest thing about it. Tenten fell in step with his life with startling ease. It was as if she had always been a part of it, and he wondered why in this lifetime he had never met her counterpart.

So he spent his days accompanying Tenten and did the best he could to help, even if his active contribution meant shortening the days he had with her. He looked forward to the lulls between researching, for the breaks they took to train or eat, and the days spent in the training grounds instead of the Uchiha library, just so he could spend a little longer pretending that Tenten didn’t have to leave one day. The days moved into weeks and months, and in a blink, Neji realised that it was almost three months since Tenten had arrived.

He passed the flask of water to Tenten who took it with a smile. They were training outside today, only after Tenten had complained that her weaponry skills were rusty from all the time she spent inside, hunched over scrolls and books.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve summoned all my weapons,’ said Tenten. She dabbed at the sweat at her temples with her sleeve. ‘The last time was before…’

‘Before you arrived here.’ Neji finished for her, but Tenten wasn’t listening. Her gaze was fixed on a point in the distance. ‘Tenten?’

She turned to him and blinked. ‘I think I know why I ended up here. I can’t believe I hadn’t realised it before.’

‘What was it?’

‘I was in the middle of battle. It wasn’t the hardest fight I’ve had, but I was distracted.’ She hesitated, lips pursed before she added quietly, ‘I was thinking about you, well not you, but Neji.’

He knew what she meant, but still he ground his molars down at the sickening feeling that squirmed like snakes in his stomach. ‘That certainly fits with Obito’s theory. Now it’s just a matter of time before he finishes re-activating the jutsu on the sword.’

‘Obito’s almost finished with the jutsu,’ said Tenten absently. ‘He said another few days and it would be ready.’

‘Oh.’ Neji clenched his jaw and settled down next to Tenten on the grass. ‘That’s…. That’s good.’

‘Yeah…’ Tenten sighed, her brows creased in a line and then disappeared as she laughed suddenly.

‘What’s with that laugh?’ asked Neji, temporarily forgetting about the bombshell Tenten had dropped on him. A smile pulled at the corner of his lips when she fell backwards onto the grass, arms thrown out wide as she looked up at the sky.

‘I just remembered a time when we were sent on a recon mission to the Land of Earth.’ Mirth sparkled in Tenten’s eyes, her mouth wide with a smile. ‘We were in the mountains when a rockslide happened. You know what Lee and Guy did?

He shook his head and watched as Tenten bit down on her bottom lip, trying and failing to stifle the laugh already bubbling up from her chest.

‘They tried to outrun the rockslide, but because they were screaming so loudly, they caused another rockslide!’

Neji laughed, less from the story, but more from how Tenten had curled up on the grass, eyes narrowing as laughter shook her body.

The ‘we’ were always her, Neji, Lee and Guy. Most of her stories involved Team Guy in some form or the other. Each story was filled with warmth and fondness, and spoken with a kind of exasperation that only came when someone talked about family.

He pushed down the jealousy that always rose when Tenten spoke about her life. It only ever reminded him that he was just a fraction of Tenten’s life, a small moment made up of a few months, too short to evoke any warmth if she were ever to talk about him in the future.

Tenten shifted to her side and tucked her arm beneath her head. She looked up at him, the brief glimpse of happiness from the memory already fading away, and her frown returned as did the distance in her eyes.

‘What is it?’ he asked knowing she would share her thoughts.

She shook her head and still looked at him like that. It aggravated him that he might not know exactly what Tenten was thinking. In the last few months, he had learned to recognise Tenten’s changing emotions in the tone of her voice, in the subtle shifts in her expression. It was like watching the sky for changes in the weather.

With each story she shared with him, it only made him long to have experienced those memories with her. He wished that it had been him who had helped her train for her chūnin exams. He wished that it had been him covering her as she had snuck into the hideout of a group of missing-nins in that one mission to Kiri. He wished that it was _him_ who could bring that smile on her face whenever she recounted all those stories of her Neji.

She never elaborated why she lost touch with her Neji. It didn’t matter. The Neji from her timeline was a fool for letting her go.

‘Why do you look at me like that?’ He bit the inside of his cheek when he realised the question had slipped out.

Tenten’s face fell and she sat up suddenly. He waited with his breath held, wondering if Tenten would leave. She picked up a fallen shuriken and spun it between her fingers with practised movements.

He sighed and placed his hand over her fidgeting fingers. He didn’t know what compelled him. It was as if his mind and body had become detached, and that he was no longer in control of himself. There were so many things in this world that could not be explained by logic and reason. The woman in front of him was a mystery of time and space, and quite literally not from this world. Tenten’s hands stilled, fingers shaking slightly beneath the palm of his right hand and yet, she didn’t move her hands out from under his.

‘Tenten?’ Her name fell from his lips with ease, like he had been speaking those two syllables all his life. He waited until she looked up and when she did, his heart tightened in his chest as inexplicably as it did when he had first seen her.

‘How do I look at you?’ Her voice was quiet, tinged with pain, each word forced out with unerring precision.

‘Like you’re about to cry.’

Tenten’s stoic expression crumbled like a stone mask and she turned her gaze upwards, eye blinking furiously. It was as if he had pierced the hardened armour she wore with words alone and there was no way he could take them back. He eased the shuriken from her hands and dropped it to the grass. The trembling in her fingers matched the tremor he felt when she looked at him. Sadness shone in her eyes and there wasn’t a thing he could do to ease it.

Just who was he to Tenten?

‘We were teammates…’ Tenten’s voice broke off in a croak and she had to clear her throat before she continued, ‘I had your back and you had mine, just as we had Lee’s and Guy’s.’

‘But that doesn’t—’

‘Please let me finish,’ interrupted Tenten.

Neji closed his mouth and nodded. He watched as she gathered herself. The muscles in her neck flexed as her throat bobbed, once, twice as if she had swallowed down rocks so large that it pained her to do so. He tucked his fingers under her palms, thumbs brushing over the back of her hand, tracing along the numerous lines of scars on her skin from years of weapons training.

‘You were such a little shit when we were younger.’ Her watery bout of laughter sparked a smirk from him. ‘You were so full of anger about the world and about the clan, but after the chūnin exams, you changed for the better and it wasn’t a chore for you to be part of Team Guy anymore.

‘We went through so much together, trained hard, and completed missions. It wasn’t until the mission in the Land of Earth did I realise…’ Tenten exhaled shakily and the grip she had on his hand tightened, ‘just how much _more_ you meant to me.’

She said it like her words were meant for him. His heart ached with the weight of her confession and it wasn’t for him. He wasn’t the one who could transform her haunted looks with just a memory.

He wasn’t _her_ Neji and that hurt so much more than any wound he had experienced. ‘What did I—’ he broke off and caught himself before he slipped, ‘I mean, what did he do when you told him?’

Tenten inhaled sharply and she bit down hard on her bottom lip. Her eyes dimmed and hardened like the steel of her many weapons. She stayed quiet and Neji didn’t push her for more, knowing she was on the verge of something and no one, not even he could rush her. Not when it looked like her world had been destroyed from his question.

‘I never told him and then the war took him.’

Her whispered words rushed over him like cold water. All he could do was hold onto Tenten’s hands and tried to ground her with him, hoping that his touch was enough of a comfort, even if he could not bring the comfort himself. How could he when he was the living, breathing replica of her regrets?

‘Neji died in my timeline and I died here.’ Her smile was as bitter as the short laugh that left her in a shuddering breath. ‘Maybe there isn’t a timeline where we can both be alive at the same time.’

‘No,’ he said firmly. He gripped her hands and tugged for her to look up. ‘It might not be in your timeline and it might not be this one, but believe me, there is one where a Neji and a Tenten are alive and happy.’

Neji needed her to believe that as much as he wished it to be true. He looked down at their joined hands, and wished he could keep holding on and never let go.

~~~

‘Neji, why are you here?’ Hinata caught him by the sleeve as he walked through the estate’s front gate, as she was on her way out.

‘I’ve just finished my meeting with the Hokage.’

Hinata grabbed him by the shoulders, turned him around and shoved him back through the gates with an uncharacteristic disregard for decorum. ‘You need to go to Tenten. Now!’ She gave one final push and pointed to the west of the village. ‘Obito came by with the sword. It’s ready—’

He launched into a run before Hinata finished. He didn’t need to be told twice. The pounding of his heart was loud in his ears as he pumped his legs faster, forcing chakra to his feet to propel him onto the rooftops and towards the training grounds.

_Please don’t let it be too late._

At the first sight of Tenten in the distance, Neji quickened his pace until he reached the field where he skidded to a stop. He panted with every harsh breath into his lungs. Tenten was standing in the middle, on the spot she had fallen to. A spattering of grass had grown over the dirt. The crater filled in months ago. He ran the rest of the way towards her.

The world around him fell away and all his focus was on Tenten. The posture of her shoulder, the intricate braids of her hair twisted up into two buns, the wisps of hair at the nape of her neck. He tried to commit all of her to memory. When she turned, it took all of him to resist enveloping her into his arms.

He stopped in front of her, and like earlier, he resisted the actions that seemed to rise unconsciously whenever Tenten was around. He wanted to reach out and to take Tenten’s hand in his, but he didn’t. No matter how close they stood, feet almost touching, he couldn’t reach out. It was enough that he could say goodbye.

‘Neji…’ Tenten’s gaze was distant.

‘It’s time for you to leave.’ Neji finished for her.

He was good with statements. They could be short. Straight to the point. It didn’t require him to wait for an answer, not when he knew the answer would be devastating in its truth. This wasn’t Tenten’s world or her timeline. As much as she fit so neatly into his life, this wasn’t where she belonged.

It was a dream to to think she could be here walking alongside him, step for step. A traitorous thought rose as quiet as a whisper, that maybe, Tenten belonged with him. He pushed it away, shoved it firmly back into the depths it rose from and closed the lid. She belonged to no one. Least of all _him._ He was Neji Hyūga, but not _the_ Neji Hyūga who had died during the war in her own timeline. Hopelessness settled over him, quietly accepted by him that this was the way it should be. That as devastating as it was, the truth was he was not her Neji.

‘Yes,’ said Tenten simply, her voice hoarse as she looked up finally. She took a determined step back and placed her right hand on the hilt of the sword.

It wasn’t enough.

He had thought it would be enough.

The moment crashed over him like a wave taking him under. His eyes widened, face stricken and contorted in disbelief, as his heart thudded heavily in his chest. His mouth opened and closed. The words stuck in his throat halfway to freedom.

‘I-I…’ He had never stammered in his life. He had always spoken with care, taught by his father to choose his words wisely for they had the power to make or break a person.

When it came to Tenten, his words failed him and all he wanted was to pull her closer to him. So he did. He reached for Tenten and held onto her hands in a tight grip. His chest constricted at the thought he would have to let go. Three months wasn’t enough. She had only just appeared in his life and now she had to leave.

‘I’m not ready for you to go.’

‘Don’t do this,’ Tenten whispered. Her voice trembled as much as his hands shook. She looked up at him, eyes shining with tears. ‘I can’t say goodbye to you like this.’

‘This isn’t goodbye,’ he said with urgency and force. ‘This is not goodbye.’

Neji leaned down slowly, waiting with his heart in his throat for Tenten to back away. Their lips met in a desperate press. The kiss was chaste, and filled with so much pain and yearning that Neji was breathless with it. He poured all he felt for Tenten into the kiss, his wishes and wants and desires for the woman in his arms who had fallen from the sky.

A breathless sob escaped Tenten as she broke the kiss. He pressed his forehead against Tenten’s, unable to look away from the warmth and _love_ she directed at him.

It was the last thing he saw before she disappeared from his arms.

~~~

Tenten’s legs grew weak as she gasped for air. She dropped the sword. The ethereal glow of the blade had faded to dull metal. Whatever jutsu Obito had reactivated was depleted.

Her knees thudded against the hard ground. The impact should have hurt. The grit and dirt dug sharply into her covered knees. It should have stung and throbbed with pain. She felt none of that. Only a bereft emptiness filled her. A pained sob escaped her as her body seemed to become a gaping cavern. Scooped out and empty. She sagged forward. Her body curled inwards, arms wrapping around herself in an unsatisfying hug as she shook with silent sobs.

The transition between time and space had been so seamless, it felt like nothing had happened at all. She had appeared in the exact same spot of the training field.

It wasn’t the same spot. Not without Neji.

‘Tenten!’

The sound of Lee’s voice was both a comfort and a cause of added pain. It was in the way he shouted her name, familiar and full of recognition. She really had returned to her own timeline.

The one where she had never kissed Neji goodbye.

The one where Neji had died in the Fourth Shinobi War.

She had no idea how much time had passed since she had left. It could have been seconds, hours, days, months or years. It all felt meaningless when she finally had a taste of what life could have been like with Neji. Lee crouched down next to her.

‘I found him.’

‘What do you mean?’ Lee held onto her forearms gently. Confusion riddled his expression. ‘Why are you here? You left on a mission two days ago.’

‘The mission? That was two days ago?’ Her head spun as she tried to make sense of time and where she had been. It had been three months for her. Three months where she had spent every single day with Neji. Another sob rose in her chest.

‘You’re not making any sense, Tenten.’

‘I-I travelled through time and found _him_. The sword took me to him, I mean, it wasn’t him, but it was still Neji.’ She bit down on her quivering lip and tried a smile that was little more than a grimace. ‘He was healthy and _alive_ , and I had to leave him.’

‘Oh, Tenten,’ whispered Lee. His wide eyes softened and he bundled her into a tight hug.

Lee rested his cheek against the top of her head as she clenched her jaw, eyes closed against the burn of tears. She hid her face into Lee’s chest and tried to focus on the darkness, but no amount of trying could stop her from seeing Neji’s eyes and reliving their goodbye again.

~~~

_Six months later_

Tenten closed the door to her shop and locked up for the night. She sighed in frustration at the uneasiness that had been present since she woke up that morning. It had followed her throughout the day. Not even her afternoon spar with Lee had done anything to calm the feeling. It was like a constant prickling at her back, in the space between her shoulder blades, where it could not easily be reached. There was no plausible reason for why she felt this way.

Without lingering on the why, Tenten started down the street. She side-stepped around a group of shinobi on their way to happy-hour drinks. They bustled past, their raucous laughter and banter loud in the early evening. It reminded Tenten that she needed to see Hinata soon. It had been a month since she last caught up with her.

She hadn’t even realised where she was heading until she arrived at the training ground that Team Guy used to train in. It was empty, not soul in sight. Her shoulders tensed unconsciously. A frisson of energy buzzed through the air. Her feet shifted, knees bending as she reached behind her for her scroll.

A chakra signature flared to life and appeared seemingly out of thin air. Tenten dropped her battle stance, eyes widened with shock at the figure in the middle of the training ground.

‘Neji?’


End file.
